Russia eyes mutual military restraint with NATO
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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Saturday expounded on his country's positions on several issues related to the relationship between Russia and NATO.
Russia expected to ink a binding accord on mutual military restraint with NATO, said Grushko in an interview with the Interfax news agency.
"Although NATO itself acknowledges that all of the threats are coming mainly from the south, we nevertheless see that the alliance's military infrastructure has been developing in areas adjacent to Russia," said the senior diplomat.
In particular, Grushko mentioned the Baltic states, as well as new U.S. centers and bases in Bulgaria and Romania.
"All this causes our justified concern, and we would like this concern to be dispelled through dialogue and the formulation of measures that would heed Russia's security interests properly," he said.
According to Grushko, the regime of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) has been on the verge of collapse due to the "destructive position of certain NATO countries," and Russia believes the regime should be revived.
Some NATO member states should meanwhile adhere to their obligations as "not to place considerable military forces on the territory of new members," he added.
Grushko said Moscow would seriously treat NATO's proposal on setting up a joint missile defense system, but currently Russia could not make any positive decision on this issue.
It is because uncertainties remained on the "hypothetical" system's architecture, operating mechanism and designed direction for development, he noted.
"Only if this cooperation is equal and we receive guarantees that NATO countries cooperating with Russia will not create their own systems capable of disrupting strategic stability and weakening Russia's strategic potential" could Moscow agree to such a joint system, said Grushko.
In fact Russia preferred a "stage-by-stage" approach, studying real missile threats first before developing a system that could be jointly commanded and controlled by Russia and NATO, he said.
Since Moscow does not regard NATO as an adversary, said Grushko, NATO should not claim Russia as a partner while reviewing it as a potential security threat at the same time.
"NATO needs to decide once and for all how it sees Russia in order to be able to build truly equal relations," he said.
NATO severed its ties with Russia following the August 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia. In January 2010, the Russian and NATO chiefs of staff met in Brussels for talks. As a result, a framework military cooperation treaty was approved. The agreement was seen as an important step toward the restoration of military ties between Russia and NATO.
Currently Russia also allowed land transit of non-lethal NATO supplies to Afghanistan and promised more assistance to the alliance's operations in the country by supplying helicopters and training Afghan security forces.
NATO Secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has repeatedly said that his goal is to improve relations with Russia.
However, the two sides still have many fundamental differences concerning security. A Russian military doctrine approved by President Dmitry Medvedev in February defines NATO enlargement and the deployment of missile defense systems as the main external threats of war Russia is facing.
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